MISSOURI
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~~SIÀ1rii~ STOPŒES
	~ ÖORN ~ ~	Page .10.



election since I was 21 years old. Frora de beginning to de end its always the sarne~ the ReDublican ticket. Dey joke me a good deal around here ‘bout voting one way.

	( ~H.S I look back on it, peoDle ought never to have been slaves. Dat was the low downest thing dat ever was. De first startin‘ of slavery was whena white man would go over to Africa and de people over dere was ignorant and de white man would hold up a ~retty red handkerchief and trad~e, it for one of de Negro women‘s children. De Negroes in Africa was too ignorant to know better and dis is de way slavery started. I always said like dis, when de older ones that knowed de t hings ‚ dey ought have learned de slaves ‚ their names as dey was in âfrica. Lots of us don‘t know what our grandparents was in Africa. Slavery didn‘t teach you nothin‘ but how to work and if you didn‘t work your back would tell it. Slavery taught you how to lie, too4~ .Tust like your master would tell you to go over and steal dat hog. Den de other master from who I stole de hog would say, ‘Peter, why I‘ve lost a hog; did you ever see him anywhere?‘ I would say, ‘No, suh‘. Of course if I did not lie I would get a whippin‘.

“De white people did not want to put us in a state to ourselves after de freedom teause dey couldn‘t do without us. De colored people done come up too high now to back ‘era and dey got a better chance. De cOnditions now of de colored people is of course better now cause dey